Tag Archives | community

The Revolution at Home

By on October 14, 2011 in Culture & Leadership

It might be taking things too far to say that what’s happening in the US is the same as what’s  happening internationally. In the recent uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Yemen, Libya, Bahrain, Syria, and Jordan, people came together to demand freedom of voice, leadership they could believe in, and meaningful work. They wanted [...]

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Humanize Thru Trust

By on October 3, 2011 in Culture & Leadership

“Do you trust him/her?” The answer to that question determines a lot – whether you follow a leader, and whether others follow you. Given the centrality of this tenant to, well, everything…the question is how exactly do you build trust? I’ve been thinking about this question a lot over the years and there is one [...]

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The Kick In the Pants

By on September 6, 2011 in Entrepreneurship

I felt his foot so far up my butt that I could practically taste the leather. All the way from Oakland to our end destination of Los Gatos, he went on and on. And when traffic hit us, and slowed us down to a crawl, I almost wept from the agony of more time on [...]

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Flesh And Blood

By on August 5, 2011 in Social

Let me just say the truth that no one else wants to tell you: We are sick to death of that grey faceless icon you let be your image on Linked In or Facebook. Said more positively, we want to see you. Not a grey faceless icon, but you. And, not some weird, Second Life-style [...]

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Understanding Twitters Growth

By on April 22, 2009 in Social, Tech & Trends

One of the hottest recent stories in the tech industry has been the rapid rise of the messaging service Twitter. Starting from a small base of enthusiast users, the service has rapidly risen to prominence in the media, with extensive coverage of its adoption by celebrities. In the last month, Google counted about 65,000 news stories mentioning Twitter, and the web tracking service Alexa reported a remarkable 400% increase in traffic to Twitter.com in the last four months. In April 2009, Alexa reported that daily visits to twitter.com surpassed those to cnn.com:

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Community As Social Media Strategy

By on December 13, 2008 in Market Power, Social

The passage of California’s Proposition 8 (the gay marriage ban) has created a nasty problem for Yelp and other online reviews sites. The situation is a good example of the complexities of running a social site, and the ability of web-organized groups to distort a social ratings system. I’m not sure what the lesson is [...]

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Online Communities, Why They Matter (III)

By on October 23, 2008 in Featured, Social

In strategy work with tech companies, my team and I are frequently asked about web communities — how they operate, what they can and can’t do, and how a company should look to work with them. To help answer those questions, we surveyed more than 3,000 US web users on their overall Internet usage, and [...]

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Winning Business Models: Innovation vs. Invention

By on January 7, 2008 in Market Power, Social, Tech & Trends

Invention is the classic way to build a successful company. However, invention is much harder for a mature company or a mature technology. Business model innovation is an attractive option in many cases as a way to differentiate an offer, improve profitability or both. Below are five emerging business models.

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Always About Engagement

By on September 18, 2007 in Featured, Market Power

We all want to be new school and know that the latest top hit song (via iTunes) is a song called SOS by Jonas Brothers. I had to look that up. Because what I pay attention to the most are things I already love. While I’d like to be super hip, the songs that run through my head are more like “The Way We Were” if I’m feeling melancholy, “Sweet Home Alabama” if I feel good, or Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” if I feel, ya know, sassy.
What does this have to do with marketing, you ask?

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The Nature of Things: Web Marketing

By on August 16, 2007 in Featured, Market Power, Social

For each era, there are new rules. In the web world today, marketing online has new rules. Marketing is no longer about awareness online, but about creating an experience for the consumer or customer.
I propose the new marketing goal with online marketing is about engagement. Personal engagement. Connection from user to company. Customers like what you help them do. Your offerings are appealing and designed around and with them. Customers are delighted because they can exchange usages with one another and therefore find more ways to use your gadget. Joy of engagement brings them back again and again.

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